Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 22nd January 2022
Published: 6th August 2020
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
YOU DON'T SEE HER. BUT SHE SEES YOU.
MIDNIGHT. In the bad part of town, where cats prowl and foxes shriek, a girl is watching...
When Saffyre Maddox was ten, something terrible happened, and she's carried the pain of it ever since. The man who she thought was going to heal her didn't, and now she hides and watches him, learning his secrets, invisible in the shadows.
Owen Pick is invisible too. He's never had a girlfriend; he's never even had a friend.
Nobody sees him. Nobody cares.
But when Saffyre goes missing from opposite his house on Valentine's Day, suddenly the whole world is looking at Owen.
Accusing him. Holding him responsible for Saffyre's disappearance...
INVISIBLE GIRL: an engrossing, twisty story of how we look in the wrong places for bad people while the real predators walk among us in plain sight.
MY REVIEW:
Despite it's gripping prologue that leaves you on the precipice of wanting more, what then played out I wasn't sure if I would enjoy INVISIBLE GIRL as much as Lisa Jewell's previous thrillers. But I should not have doubted because while I initially thought it a slow start the beginning was actually laying the foundations for a solid thriller that left readers questioning just what the hell was going on. I mean, seriously? And then just when you think you know what is going on, the shift changes again leaving your head spinning going...what the...?
While it is not my favourite that Lisa Jewell has penned - "Then She Was Gone" topped that list - it is a good solid thriller that will keep you guessing...even when you think you know how it is going to play out. But besides being a thriller, it is also a thought-provoking story of abuse, misogyny and sexual assault. The main players being: a suspicious wife, a dodgy husband, a creepy neighbour and a 17 year old girl who has thus gone missing. So what happened on that Valentine's night? Who is responsible for the missing girl's disappearance? Someone saw something, surely. Or someone isn't telling the truth.
Saffyre Maddox is not your typical teenager. She has no real friends, is not interested in boys and spends most of her time roaming the streets of a Hampstead village predominantly at night. She's the invisible girl no one sees. But when she was 10 years old she suffered something so traumatic it altered her perspective on life, on people, on everything. And so she self harms as a consequence. She received therapy from child psychologist Roan Fours for three years before he deemed her progress to be so improved she no longer needed him. But Roan had barely scratched the surface and Saffyre's issues were so deep-seated they remained unresolved. And in a bid to heal herself, she begins to stalk Roan and uncovers something she never expected to find. And then she disappears...
Cat Fours is a middle-aged middle class wife married to Roan with two teenage children - Georgia (15) and Josh (14). They are currently renting a flat in Hampstead while their own house in Kilburn is being restored. But despite her smiles, Cat isn't at all happy and, not for the first time, suspects Roan of having an affair. In fact, it's not even the first time he's had an affair. His behaviour is a little off coupled with the late nights and early starts and endless amounts of running he does, something just doesn't sit right. She thought, when looking for temporary premises, that Hampstead would be a nice quiet and exclusive place to live for the duration...until she hear the news of sexual assaults on women nearby. And when Georgia calls her one night on her way home from the Tube, scared that someone is following her, Cate fears for her daughter's safety whilst someone is out there targeting women.
Owen Pick is a non-descript man with no friends and is a 33 year old virgin. He has something of a sad family background, leaving him feeling awkward and out of step in social situations, and has lived with his aunt in Hampstead since he was eighteen. Things get even worse for him when his drink is spiked at a school disco he is chaperoning and he makes untoward advances and inappropriate comments to some of the students, and is thus suspended. Everyone thinks Owen is strange, weird, creepy even - the girls at school, the neighbours, a woman he inadvertently bumped into on his way home, even his aunt. And the girl across the road keeps giving him strange looks whilst he just stares blankly at her, wondering what it is he has done. And then things go from bad to worse for poor Owen when Saffyre goes missing and she was last seen outside his house.
How these people's lives intersect in this dark and somewhat disturbing tale unfolds through the eyes of Saffyre, Cate and Owen both before and after Valentine's night around which this story revolves. The narrative is dark and it is chilling and I had no idea who would come out of it unbroken...if at all. What is essentially highlighted in this book is not only the obvious but the vulnerability of people like Owen and how susceptible they are to predators of a different kind. I especially sympathised with Owen because he was so incredibly awkward around people, he even admitted that women terrified him, and yet he was in the frame for Saffyre's disappearance. But is he guilty? Or is it the work of the serial predator around the neighbourhood who has been assaulting women? Or something more sinister?
The other characters all have their redeeming and even less redeeming qualities but they each played a part in this disturbing thriller where no one is who they appear to be. Cate was a protective mother hen, suspicious of hubby Roan, who himself was decidedly dodgy anyway. Then there is son Josh who appears to be sweeter that sweet son but what is he really hiding? And Georgia's friend Tilly who claimed she was assaulted as she left their house and then retracted her assertion...is she telling the truth or hiding something? Everyone in this book, pretty much, is hiding something. Nobody is who they appear to be.
And then there is that ending...BAM! What the...?
Upon re-reading the last lines, I was like...Lisa Jewell, you have redeemed yourself with that ending!! And best of all, those short snappy chapters keep the pace moving along nicely even when it starts off slow.
Perfect for fans of dark and twisted thrillers.
I would like to thank #LisaJewell, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #InvisibleGirl in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
She worked for the fashion chain Warehouse for three years as a PR assistant and then for Thomas Pink, the Jermyn Street shirt company for four years as a receptionist and PA. She started her first novel, Ralph’s Party, for a bet in 1996. She finished it in 1997 and it was published by Penguin books in May 1998. It went on to become the best-selling debut novel of that year.
She has since written a further nine novels, as is currently at work on her eleventh.
She now lives in an innermost part of north London with her husband Jascha, an IT consultant, her daughters, Amelie and Evie and three pets. She claims to love the dog best.
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